Kind of exciting....almost felt like we should have been passing out cigars to celebrate, or at least those chocolate fake cigarettes we'd get in our childhood stockings at Christmas.

Soooo, it did develop some b. linens but I kept it wiped off. It was made without meters and I'm not sure if I timed the curd cutting by flocculation time on this first one. (by the way, "flocculation" sounds like a word to describe what college students do when they head to Florida for spring break) Ahem, back to cheese story. I'm not exactly sure how it's supposed to taste but we really like it! it's mild and salty and we tried it on small slabs of heirloom garden tomatoes with bits of chive, red amaranth leaf, basil leaf ribbons and dill. Also tried it on some flax seed crackers. It really is yummy! We also ate slivers of it with out rice and beans dinner. Here are some photos.

I'm sorry to say but I don't have make notes from this. I combined two recipes...I found both on the blog owned by cheesemaking.com. One was by Gavin and one by Suzanne. It's a pretty straight forward make with a short aging requirement. I used our raw goat milk, vegetable rennet and can't remember which culture. Hope I remember when I look over my cultures because I really like this cheese! Do try it!

That's a nice looking caerphilly. Caerphilly is one of my regular makes. The quick turn around makes it a good learning cheese.

- Jeff

Maybe you can post some make notes for Dulcelife. I do agree about the quick turn around making it a great learning cheese. My aging Parmesan was made as an act of optimism since I won't know how it turned out for so long! And the question I ask myself is whether to make more before I know how the first came out.

There are a number of posts including make notes on Caerphilly listed on the board - mostly found in the hard cheddared forum. I've just posted my make notes for my 8th caerphilly, and it's based upon Gavin's make, which he based upon Tim Smith's book.

- Jeff

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As it happened, I made my first caerphilly today, mainly based on the recipe in the Willman book. They say to eat in 2 weeks - I'm hoping to age it a little longer than this - Tiarella, how long did you keep it before eating?Margaret

Hi Margaret! I think it was 3 weeks. My first bite had me a little disappointed thinking there was no much flavor but then my tongue got acclimated to the subtleties, the texture, the balance of saltiness and tender flavor, etc. and then I liked it a lot. I have to read up on what the texture should be before I know if mine is a bit dry or what. I made 2 batches/wheels the same week so I think I'll let the other one age longer just to try that. I also wonder what might be my best way to store and continue to age the second half of a wheel after opening it. It's a natural rind so waxing it doesn't necessarily seem like the right approach and I don't have one of those nifty vacuum sealers so not sure what to do. Let me know how your batch tastes when you finally taste it!

Hi Bob, I really liked the first Caerphilly. The second one was a bit dry. I think less rennet perhaps would have served my raw milk better. It's still a fine usable cheese....just not as stunning as the first one.

Which recipe are you planning on using? I just made another batch yesterday and created 2 more. I'll post photos later. I like this cheese and want to perfect it since it's such a great cheese and doesn't require months of waiting. (although I think I'll keep one of these for longer just to see what flavors it develops)

Hi Tiarella, I'll be using a recipe from an Australian book "HOME CHEESEMAKING - The secrets of how to make your own cheese and other dairy products" by Neil and Carole Willman. This is my cheese "bible" along with the information gleaned from this forum. It is a simple meso based recipe, and I'll probably make some minor adjustments, incorporating some of Jeff Hamms' experience as well.

I'm interested in what size hoop you used for your Caerphilly? I have a hoop that is appox 6" diameter that I used for my blue (see My first True Blue post) that I'm hoping to use. My make size is usually 8 litres, (around 2 US gallons), but I might be able to stretch to 9 litres. Alternatively, I could make two smaller cheeses with my cheddar baskets, around 4.5" dia. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Hi Bob,I used two different molds yesterday, both about 6", both with different basket designs. I'll post photos when I'm at my other computer. I brined 1 and am just air drying the other. Gavin waxes his but I don't have any wax right now. I'll air dry it and see if it develops a rind. Don't know if I should rub it with a bit of olive oil or just let it air dry. I'll post my make notes when I'm back on my regular computer. I'm concerned that I needed to use less rennet because my flocculation time was much less than I wanted.I think my first two batches of Caerphilly were done in a mold closer to 5" or just under but I don't think it matters too much. I've also got one aging that is a lower larger round....maybe 7-8" across.I'll post the recent make photos soon and I hope you will share your experience of your batch.

Caerphilly is usually eaten around three weeks, so I wouldn't worry about waxing it unless you want to store one for 6 months to a year (but if that's the case, make a cheese designed for extended aging, like a traditional cheddar). Air dry it at normal room temp for 4 or 5 days, flipping morning and evening until dry to the touch, then move it to your cave. It may develop a bit of a white mould (wild geo) by 3 weeks or so. That's normal. You can brush it back with a clean nail brush.

I've never waxed a caerphilly, nor have I bothered to even vac. bag it. Just store them in a ripening box and they should be fine.

- Jeff

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Hi Jeff, why do you think Gavin waxes his? I'd like to try aging them past 3 weeks. Yoav sent me a photo of 7 week old ones with natural moldy rinds that he said were lovely I think. They sure had some mold on them and looked great!

Bob, here's my make.....for the most recent batch that is.

Caerphilly Cheese 8/25/2012Used raw goat milk: 13.5 quarts, 4 quarts of which were fresh from morning milkingBrought milk to 88 degreesAdded cultures: a shy ½ tsp. of MA4001 and a shy ½ tsp. of Thermophilic BLet cultures rehydrate 5 minutes Stirred and rested it 30 minutes¾ tsp of double strength rennet added. I think I used too much because I was forgetting that I had double strength. I had lowered the amount somewhat but my floc time was only 6 minutes. I multiplied that by 4 to get a cut time of 24 minutes after rennet addition. I will have to adjust recipe next time for a longer floc time.

Cut curds with whisk and stirred to find uncut pieces and reduce size of them.Rested 5 minutesRaised temp from 91 to 96…….it got ahead of me. The temp was raised over the course of 25 minutes and then it got 40 minutes of intermittent stirring to keep curds from matting.Removed excess whey and then strained the curds. They matted together and seemed quite firm so I skipped the step of cutting into slabs and letting them drain further. I was concerned they’d get too dry to press well. Broke curd mass into small bits….roughly their original curd sizeAdded 1 ½ T of sea salt and mixed in.

Put into two molds and pressed at about 10 pounds under whey for 20 minutesTook out, redressed and flipped and salted tops and bottomsPut back into make-shift pressing contraption for another 20 minutesTook out, flipped and redressed and put back into press….forgot to re-salt the tops and bottoms.Pressing under about 20 pounds of weight, intending to do it for some time but not sure how many hours since I’m concerned the curds may have been overheated and the cheese may tend towards dryness. Ended up pressing about 14 hours at that weight.

One went into brine and one is air drying.

I hope the one that I didn't brine is fine.....and develops a rind of some sort.

I've had naturally occurring B. Linens show up in my cheese fridge. (wine fridge) Not sure how it found me but it's been fine and I've washed it and some small blue spots off with salt/vinegar solution.

I've been trying watercolor pencils to mark my cheeses. I'll take a photo sometime to show what it looks like. I just wonder if it'll have to be relabeled if I have to wash mold off of it.

Oooh, sorry the photos show up sideways. Not sure why that happened. Well, just lay on your desk to view them!

Tiarella Ha ha. I'm sitting up straight again now I love the look of your 1st cheese, a very pretty cheese indeed! The second one looks like it uses exactly the same hoop as I have so I'm happy to try it now. My make is roughly half the size of yours, so I should get one nicely shaped cheese.

Thanks also for your recipe, I'll put that into the mix on the weekend. I will be using fresh cow's milk, I don't do goat!